Reddit mentions of Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms: An Essential Dungeons & Dragons Supplement

To me it reads like a draft of a PHB 2 or D&D Essentials. I don't know what that means, precisely, in terms of what the end book will be, but I have some hope for a PHB 2-style book.

First, I'd recommend that you keep the box and all of the components in good condition, so you can consider re-selling it once you're done with it. The Red Box seems to be out of print and is selling for far above its $20 MSRP, and if you can recoup some of the money you spent on it to buy some resources that will have more lasting value, it might be worth it (depending on how highly you value your time), since you will have little use for most of the contents of the box once you're through with the initial adventure.

Or, if it's not too late, you may want to cancel your order. The Starter Set is a relatively gentle introduction to D&D, but not necessarily the best one and certainly not the cheapest.

To prepare, you might want to read, and have everyone else read, the quick start rules. You can also have the players choose pre-generated characters from that document and print off the corresponding character sheets. The Red Box method of character creation involves running through a solo "choose-your-own-adventure" book, which you might not want to do 3 or 4 times in succession for each of your players. Note that the the quick start rules uses slightly different versions of the character classes presented in the Red Box, but the characters/systems are compatible.

You will not immediately need to create your own group adventure, as one is included with the Starter Set.

Also, as an alternative to the Starter Set, /u/Dracoprimus posted a bunch of links to free adventures. You can also choose to run one of these adventures after you finish with the Red Box.

However, neither those those links nor the Red Box will not give you the resources needed to build your own characters or advance them past level 2, nor do they contain the info a DM needs to create his own campaign, or extensively modify an existing one. For that, I recommend getting the following resources (buying some of the books used may yield a good savings):

• Heroes of the Fallen Lands (alternatives/supplements: Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, the 4e Player's Handbook)
  
• The 4e Dungeon Master's Guide (alternative/supplement: the 4e Rules Compendium)
  
• The Monster Vault (buy a new or like-new copy so you can be sure you get all of the included components)
  
  With those three products, you have everything you need to run a level 1-30 campaign. A D&D Insider subscription can substitute for those resources to a large extent, and supplement them with tons of content, but it's most useful as a convenience and reference. I would still recommend getting the core books even if your group has a DDI sub.
  
  On top of that, a few game aids are nice to have:
  
  
• A blank, reusable flip-mat, like the Paizo basic flip-mat, plus some dry- or wet-erase markers.
  
• Alternatively, a 1" gridded easel pad, which you can probably get at an office supply store.
  
• Enough dice for everyone. Bulk dice like Chessex Pound O' Dice can be a good way to go.
  
• Tokens or character markers. The Monster Vault and Starter Set include some. You can make your own, buy miniatures or products that come with miniatures, like the Descent board game or the Legend of Drizzt, or WotC's Dungeon Command games.

Alternately, you can get either or both of these for character creation. They offer a different style of characters to play, and will be the same classes that you'll find in the Red Box. In my experience these classes are easier on new players than the PHB classes.

Players don't need much. I agree with BenDunno's suggestion - PH1 is a good place to start. Depends on what they feel like playing. Community opinion is mixed on the Essentials builds in Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, but these builds are fully cross-compatible with the rest of 4th Ed, so if people want to play them, it won't cause a problem. A few players in my group tried out Essentials characters and had fun with them.

The Rules Compendium is amazingly handy for both players and DM's - easy to carry around, clearly indexed and consolidated.

(btw, I included Amazon links for clarity, but if you've got a dedicated game store near you, buy from them instead - your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) is a really important part of the gamer ecosystem - give 'em all the support you can :) )

If you play Pathfinder, then note that they put all their rules and bestiary online for free and so you can save some serious dough. You can then spend your money on things like battle mats, paper miniatures, and adventure modules. They have an upcoming beginners box that would probably be perfect for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KPv80QsBfI

If you play D&D 4th Edition, you kind of have to choose between the original line and "Essentials" line (it's very confusing). Personally I say go with the Essentials line because it is easier, cheaper, and (to me at least) "feels" more like what D&D is supposed to be like. WotC doesn't publish anything online for free like Paizo, so you'll have to buy some stuff. I recommend:

• At least one copy of Heroes of the Fallen Lands (class book for fighters, clerics, wizards and rogues: ~$14 on Amazon
  
• Optional: At least one copy of Heroes of the Fallen Kingdoms (class book for rangers, druids, paladins and warlocks): ~$14 on Amazon.
  
• Semi-Optional At least one copy of the Rules Compendium:~$14 on Amazon. The reason I list this as semi-optional is because most of the rules you'll need as a beginner are contained in the class guide books
  
• Monster Vault. This contains monster stats and a whole bunch of tokens. ~$20 on Amazon.
  
  If no one wants to play a ranger, druid, paladin or warlock at first you can skip the one book and meet your $60 budget. Eventually you'll probably want to get a Dungeon Master guide of some sort. The kind of information in those books is mostly generic advice on how to run games and handle personalities, so it's possibly to buy an older used copy from the original line even though you are playing Essentials. Hell, since it's just generic advice, you could even buy the Pathfinder guide (which is amazingly well written) and use it for D&D.
  
  In summary - I think it's easier for you to meet your budget by going with Pathfinder, since they publish a lot of material for free, leaving you to spend your money on the adventure modules which is where all the fun is anyways. It's unanimous that Pathfinder does a much better job on published adventures too, since they are a company that started off as an adventure publishing company and that is their strength. However, D&D 4e (especially Essentials) is much easier to play, but you won't have as much money left over to spend on adventures (and those adventures kind of suck).

>I'd go buy a standard price book (RPG books tend to be waay more expensive where I am than in the US).

I'm not sure where you live efrique, but the above description meets the description of Australia pretty fair and square (where I live) so I'll throw some bitlets of info out and if you're in Australia and it helps it will be cool, and if you're somewhere else you might get some ideas nonetheless.

So, on a long ramble during my break from study, please see the below screed of 'maybe knowledge' ... although, first:

TL; DR

I'd go Dungeon World, OSRIC, Fate/FAE in that order ... but thats just me ...

Anyway:

Fate

Fate is 'setting neutral' ... a lot less crunchy that D&D and Co, and is a story game with supplementary rules rather than the other way around. Its made by the nice folk at 'Evil Hat' who provide it on a pay what you can basis (incl. $0) right here. There is also a 'condensed version' of the rules called 'Fate Accelerated' which is similarly 'setting neutral'.

Fred Hicks from Evil Hat will be better at explaining "why Fate", or you could also look at this thread from /r/rpg

Dungeon World

Its good that old school D&D feel with a 'to do it, just say it' kind of new school story telling mechanic. Its $10 as a pdf from here. I like it, its good for beginners to role playing and its collaborative story telling as you go.

OSRIC

OSRIC is a re-release of what is basically the original D&D rules under an open game licence. There are kind of a lot of different versions of this kind of thing and, to be fair, I have no idea what the actual differences are. Someone might pip in and tell us hopefully. You can get the book for free as a pdf right here at lulu.com or apparently to get them to print, bind and post it to you it costs only $17.81 which, as an Australian, seems far too good to be true ...

Pathfinder


I've used bookdepository.com in the past to get the hardcopy of Paizo's Pathfinder Core Rulebook ... which at around $50 and no postage is a lot better than the $80-110 I'd have to pay if I bought at a local bookshop, and better than you can get directly from Paizo who charge $40 for the book and $40 for international postage.

Pathfinder Core might be a bit too complex for what your looking for at this point though, but bookdepository is by far a cheaper option if you can find what you're looking for compared to buying local (which seems counter-intuitive, and while I'd like to 'support local' I just don't have that much cash!).

D&D


D&D 4e (which I've never played to be honest) has a bunch of 'essentials' A5 size books which summarised the preceding years of rules glut down into some basic books: See the 'frequently bought together bit half way down and also there is a Rules Compendium - apparently that's D&D 4e, the summarised version ... $60-ish the lot if you are in Australia, and I've seen them for $20-$25 each at the "FLGS" so you saving a bit there ...

Alternately, Wizards of the Coast are currently 'playtesting' the 5th edition of D&D and you can sign up to be a beta tester and download the lastest test version for free here

The Red Box for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons is more of a quick start than a full game. If you're wanting to run a full game in that edition, you'll want to pick up one of the following books:

• Heroes of the Fallen Lands This has character creation rules for Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Ranger.
  
  
• Heroes of Forgotten Kingdoms Rules for Druid, Paladin, Ranger (different build), and Warlock.
  
  I'd also recommend the Rules Compendium as it has all the rules needed to run and play the game (outside character creation).
  
  These books are under $20 and you may be able to pick them up for less than $10 used. They're also Prime eligible (depending on the seller) on Amazon. They're also digest sized, making them easy to take with you when you travel. The Rules Compendium is available as a digital download as well.
  
  You can also find multiple character creation programs online, such as Hero Lab that are detailed enough you don't actually need the books. I believe the Dungeons & Dragons Insider character generator is still available online. Unfortunately, these require a subscription or software purchase. Other programs can do the same thing, but they're fan created and some of them go way over what's legally allowed by the license to do.
  
  These all assume you're wanting to stick with 4th Edition. If not, you can easily ditch it and make use of the accessories of the Red Box. If you want to go with D&D Next (the playtest of the edition that will launch this summer), you can pick up either of the Encounters seasons written for that edition because they include the playtest rules. Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle and Dreams of the Red Wizard: Scourge of the Sword Coast are available now.
  
  You can also go with Pathfinder, which is a modified version of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition. The Pathfinder Beginner's Box is one of the best introductory bundles I've ever seen, and it has rules for character creation and advancement for 1st through 5th levels (though you're limited to Fighter, Wizard, Rogue, and Cleric and Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling). However, you can use the Pathfinder Reference Document to expand on that for free.

Well, we're still really new to the game.. we only started playing in August. However, if you want to get a good idea of what gameplay is like and/or how to build a character, check out these links:

• 
  One group's weekly D&D game, recorded live
  
• 
  Dungeons & Dragons Official Homepage
  
• 
  Character building help: 27 Questions to Ask your New Character
  
  Also buy these books:
  
  Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms
  
  Heroes of the Fallen Lands
  
  D&D Rules Compendium
  
  These first two books are all about the character races and classes, and the last one is just a comprehensive list of all the game rules. Like I said, I've been playing since August, and I haven't read all of them cover to cover, because so far the only parts that have been pertinent to me were about building my character and leveling up. But there's a good, strong description of the gameplay in there, so you should get a pretty good idea of how it works.
  
  Hope this helps!

You've purchased a setting supplement for Dungeons & Dragons, 4th Edition. 4th Edition (aka D&D4e, 4th, 4e) is very different to earlier editions and isn't particularly compatible with them.

There are many others in this thread recommending products and games that are not compatible with the product you've purchased, because they are different games (and thus the rules are different, in the way Scrabble and Monopoly are different). Be aware that The Shadowfell box is not compatible with non-4e games.

My suggestion is to start out with the Red Box that you've looked into already, and also the "Essentials" books -- Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms, Heroes of the Fallen Lands, and the Rules Compendium.

After that you'd want to look into the Monster Vault box.

Each of these (including the Monster Vault box) is about $20. The MV box is well worth the money.